So we are here in Europe for an extended period with very little luggage and just a few art supplies beside my smash book / travel journal that I brought from home. We have been touring so there is not a lot of time to play with art journal techniques. I have had to be inventive and use very basic techniques and supplies to make my travel journal interesting and quick.

Here is my clear packing tape image transfers using free antique images . I found this old paperback book in Florence that a book seller had left in a box on the sidewalk for free. There were some antique images in it and I thought the images would work in the smash book. I bought some $1 clear packing tape at the 1 euro store ( yes, they had several 1 euro stores in Florence but none here in Lucca) and went to work in my apartment’s kitchen sink. I pressed down the tape to the images with a rolling pin that happened to be in the kitchen and put these babies into some warm water to soak in the sink. Turned them over and carefully rubbed the paper away from the back side of the tape and dried it off. Then I used them in my travel journal in an appropriate place for the image. As you can see it gives another dimension to the travel smash book / journal and it took less than 30 minutes to make 4 of them.

I am experimenting with other papers and have discovered that you can do an image transfer with this lovely Florentine paper. The paper on the side of this photograph. I will do a quick tutorial about that in the upcoming days. It is amazing how inventive you can get when you do not have all of your supplies and cannot even find them in the stores. I really miss my distress inks. Hope this helps.